Monday, 12 July 2010

I was going to do this as a quasi interview with my son for this piece but every answer to questions like "what is the best thing about the Doctor" was "everything" which should tell you where this thing is going.

When Doctor Who was revamped way back in 2005, I was excited but there was a twinge of sadness. This was due to my less than one year old son, I felt sad that he would miss this as there was no possible way it would last more than one series.

I was wrong. As my son grew the series continued. Until we got to the fourth series and he was now pretty much old enough to watch it. And we did and it was ace. He loved the show but, to be honest it was the monsters that grabbed and held his attention.

Then we came to The Eleventh Hour. A new Doctor. And within 5 minutes my son was obsessed.

It was almost frightening to watch. He was all about the Doctor, quoting his lines, voraciously reading any Doctor Who comic put in front of him. He would cry when an episode finished and was told that the next one wasn't on until next week. He was totally enraptured.

This isn't to see this hasn't happened before. There is a box of Transformers in his room to prove this. Not to mention all the Ben 10 toys scattered around everyone. He is a child, his attention span for these things is finite.

So far this hasn't been the case with Who. The toys, obviously, have an impact but he hasn't been this interested in the word of a series before. he wants to know the names of all the aliens, their history, where they come from. He spouts quotes from the show back at me, refuses to eat the 'bad bad beans'. He's even started to ask about the old Doctors, thanks to a few of the little clips of them in the new series.

I am of course, immensely proud of this. If I'm honest there has been an element of ground work laid down for this kind of behaviour, mainly in reading him issues of the Lee & Kirby Fantastic Four run for his bedtime stories.

I digress. This is truly his Doctor. Matt Smith has captured my son's heart. You can pick at this kind of show as much as you like but you cannot argue with it's appeal. It is truly universal with a central hero that is someone to aspire to.

The show (marketing aside) has good intentions and doesn't feel as 'designed' as other shows. Ben 10 is great but it feels 'designed' to appeal to kids with an almost Terminator like focus. Doctor Who feels like people trying to tell good fun stories to raise the hairs on your neck, none more so that in this latest series.

Long may it continue and may the world welcome a future Whovian.

Phil Doyle is one of the creators of abadeducation.com and co-host of the sonicsring.com podcast. His real job is in insurance which he hopes won't be forever. He also has a complete set of Marvel 2099 first issues, even Ravage 2099.